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Our Lady’s Electronic Newsletter: May 2008

This newsletter is intended for subscribers and others interested
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American Civil Rights Lawyer
and Journalist Accuses
Vatican Secretary of State
of Cover-Up and Deception

In Italy, the renowned Catholic television host and commentator, Antonio Socci, has publicly accused Cardinal Bertone of concealing a text containing the words of the Virgin Mary in the famous "Third Secret" of Fatima.

Bertone's "interpretation" of the Third Secret has been ridiculed in the Italian press. Socci calls it "lame," and demonstrates in his book The Fourth Secret of Fatima that Bertone must be hiding something. In response, Bertone has attacked Socci on national television, radio and in his own book, The Last Secret of Fatima, which is to be published in the United States on May 6.

Attorney and journalist Christopher A. Ferrara, in his book The Secret
Still Hidden, picks up where Socci leaves off. Ferrara---a civil rights
lawyer who has been involved in a number of high profile cases (including the
Theresa Schiavo litigation)---has written his own extensive and meticulously
documented exposé of the Cardinal's cover-up.

The Secret Still Hidden is thoroughly factual and reads like a legal thriller. In it Ferrara builds an overwhelming case that reaches the same conclusion Socci did: Cardinal Bertone is covering up a text of the Virgin's words pertaining to the Third Secret---a text that warns of disasters for the Catholic Church and for everyone in the whole world.

Cardinals Launch Drive
for New Marian Dogma

Little attention has been paid to an appeal made by five Cardinals in February. The prelates wrote to all Catholic bishops asking them to call on Pope Benedict XVI to proclaim as dogma that the Blessed Virgin Mary is "the Spiritual Mother of all humanity, the Co-redemptrix with Jesus the Redeemer, Mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one Mediator, and Advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."

Putting their names to the appeal were Cardinals Toppo (Ranchi, India); Luis Aponte Martinez (Puerto Rico); Varkey Vithayathil (India); Ricardo Vidal (Philippines); and Ernesto Corripio Ahumada (Mexico). According to Catholic World News, the Cardinals said they hoped to "start an in-depth worldwide dialogue on Mary's role in salvation for our time."

In issuing their appeal, the Cardinals seem to have placed themselves in opposition to the powers that be in the Church, such as Cardinals Bertone and Kasper, who wring their hands in fear that the proclamation of a new and extremely powerful Marian dogma could "complicate" ecumenical discussions, particularly with the Protestants. On the contrary, the Cardinals affirm that "a clear presentation" of Catholic beliefs could be a "service of clarification to other religious traditions."

In other words, the five Cardinals are -- thanks be to God -- standing up for the traditional Catholic Faith, in the face of those who would relegate Our Lady to a status less exalted than the Queen of Heaven and Mother of God deserves.

Regrettably, the five Cardinals steered clear of making the connection between the role of Mary as Mediatrix and the Message of Fatima. The role of the Blessed Virgin as Mediatrix is at the heart of the Fatima Message. Our Lady of Fatima told us, "Only I can help you." This is neither pious exaggeration nor devotional excess.

Father Joseph de Sainte-Marie, O.C.D., has analyzed the universal mediation of Our Lady in the light of revelation and Catholic theology. According to this learned priest, the Fatima apparitions and the promised triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are fully in accord with Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium.

The Slaughter of Women:
Why India and the World Need Fatima

The will and mettle of the Catholic Church is being tested not just in China (see The Fatima Network: March 2008) but in the other Asian giant, India. Hundreds of priests visiting the Fatima Center's Only Way to World Peace conference in Chennai confirmed that the Church in their country must address the issues of anti-Christian violence and the victimization of women in Indian society.

Female feticide (abortion) and infanticide (killing of infant babies) are still widespread practices in India. As soon as a fetus has been determined to be a girl, she is killed in her mother's womb. Unscrupulous doctors use modern technology, e.g. ultrasound, to find out the sex of the unborn child, after which an abortion may be procured very cheaply, no questions asked. After the birth of a baby girl, she may be fed poisonous plants or drowned to simulate an accident.

In the large South-Asian communities of Canada and the USA, mothers-to-be have an ultrasound, find out they are expecting a baby girl, and then arrange a "therapeutic abortion" through agencies such as Planned Parenthood.

India and the whole world need the period of peace that was promised to us by Our Lady of Fatima. That peace includes not just freedom from war, but freedom from the evils of abortion and infanticide and other errors of Russia which have now spread throughout the world. The false ecumenism of Cardinals Bertone and Kasper will not bring peace. Only Our Lady can help us!

For more on India and why it is important in Catholic evangelical work, read "Why India?" in The Fatima Crusader, No. 50,

"Church Endorses 'Family Day', Moratorium on Abortion, Proposed by Secular Leftists" and "Selective Abortion of Girls Turning Asia into 'Masculine Continent'" may be found in the February, 2008 Fatima Network e-newsletter.

Interacting with Muslims:
"Dialogue" Instead of Crusades

Representatives of the Holy See sat down with Muslim ideologues in Rome last month to work out what Father Samir Khalil Samir, S.J. called "a few guidelines for dialogue between Christians and Muslims". They carefully avoided talking about theology alone, but attempted to discuss "the concrete problems of the two communities" -- a very polite way of referring to terrorism, the persecution of the Church in Muslim countries, and the insistence of Muslims on their "rights" in what might be called "Christian countries".

This latest attempt by the Vatican to "make nice" with the Muslims
follows the public relations fiasco surrounding Benedict XVI's lecture of September,
2006 in Regensburg, Germany, which was widely criticized by much of the Muslim
world as "hate speech". The Pope, they said, is feeding the growing "Islamophobia" in
the West.

In October, 2006, 138 Muslims sent an initial response to the Regensburg address. A second letter to the Pope, sent last fall, was signed by 138 Muslim scholars. What they want, the letters say, is "to find common ground of collaboration [our emphasis] between Christians and Muslims".

In light of the ongoing campaign against Christian nations and Christian ideals, the notion of "collaboration" seems rather bizarre. However, led by none other than the Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican agreed to "open the way to possible collaboration in various areas". The March meeting in Rome was supposed to establish the procedures and subject matter of this dialogue.

According to Father Samir, all the work and goodwill being shown by the Vatican could well be for nothing. "It seems to me," he writes, "that the Muslim personalities who are in contact with the Pope want to dodge fundamental and concrete questions, like human rights, reciprocity, violence, etc., to ensconce themselves in an improbable theological dialogue 'on the soul and God'".

Father Samir points out that the letter of the 138 is dangerously silent on the problems of the international community with the Muslim community, or within the Muslim community itself. There is widespread extremism and radicalism among a significant segment of Muslims. "Those who do not think as we do are our enemies!"

"Jihad" is not a Christian word, but it is a word which every Christian knows now, because of numerous threats from numerous Muslim leaders. How odd that the Church, which long ago abandoned Crusades to drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land, should now seek to collaborate with Her present-day persecutors. Yet the reply of Cardinal Bertone expresses "deep appreciation" for the "positive spirit" that inspired the letter of the 138, and for the appeal for joint action to promote peace in the world.

The Muslims proposed limiting the dialogue to matters of theology. But the problem is that Islam blends the theological with the political, and even with the military. The 138 scholars say they will discuss only theology. Father Samir says this distinction cannot be made. The human and social consequences of theological positions cannot be avoided.

Meanwhile, in March, the body of Catholic Iraqi Archbishop Paulos Faraj Raho was discovered. He had been kidnapped and subsequently murdered by radical Islamic terrorists. So much for dialogue.

Quo
Vadis Petre?, by Atila Sinke Guimarães,
explains how the new ecumenism is contrary to traditional Catholic teaching
and demonstrates the practical failure of ecumenism acknowledged by its participants
(Protestants, Muslims, Jews, etc.) Available from Catholic
Books Online.

Vatican Criticized for Delay in Speaking Out
Against Communist Chinese Repression in Tibet

In March thousands of protesters inside and outside China took to the streets to protest the 1951 occupation of Tibet by the Chinese Communists, and the subsequent colonization of that country by the Han Chinese. There were riots in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and demonstrations elsewhere, even in Beijing. The Communists ordered paramilitary police and soldiers to crush the demonstrations, in actions reminiscent of the infamous Tiananmen Massacre of 1989. Hundreds of Tibetans, including Buddhist monks, were killed and thousands arrested.

In an interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, veteran Vatican analyst Marco Politi criticized Pope Benedict XVI for failing to speak out against the Chinese repression and ethnic cleansing. He said the Vatican's silence on the bloodshed in Tibet reflects "the calculated desire of Church diplomats to avoid a direct conflict with the Chinese government."

Who might these "Church diplomats" be? Step forward, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone. As Vatican Secretary of State, he is responsible for diplomacy and relations between the Vatican and other states. He is also the successor to Cardinals Sodano and Casaroli, the implementers of the dreadful policy of Ostpolitik, whose evil fruits are to be seen everywhere as the errors of Russia spread throughout the world, just as Our Lady of Fatima predicted.

Mr. Politi suggested that Vatican diplomats may be pursuing a policy of "quiet diplomacy" on the Tibet issue. But they are in a poor position because of their bending towards Beijing in unofficial talks aimed at re-establishing diplomatic relations which were ruptured following the Communist revolution and establishment of the schismatic and heretical Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. The key issue in those talks is religious freedom -- the same vital issue that underlies the ongoing crisis in Tibet.

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